Paul Stastny and Matt Hunwick named to U.S. national team

Paul Stastny and Matt Hunwick will be taking a trip to Helsinki, Finland, in a few days. They were both named to the U.S. national team today for the upcoming World Championships. The team that will be coached by Joe Sacco. Will that be the only team Sacco can list as his employer soon? We’ll find out soon. I’m going to leave out any speculation on that right now.

I talked with Erik Johnson today and he is hoping to still make the team too. The first 15 players were named today, leaving room for several more. Johnson wearing a bandage over a wrist, practiced today for the first time since suffering an injury there. He won’t play in Phoenix, but hopes to play Saturday.

Hunwick’s addition to the team is probably a surprise to many, but he had a pretty decent year with the Avs, much better than last season. He didn’t provide any offense, which wasn’t a great thing for the Avs, but I think most would agree he was pretty responsible defensively.

Imagine if USA does well and Sacco gets a new contract with the Avs. (twilight zone music)

Smell the Glove

I’m much more surprised about Sacco being named the coach than Stastny being named to the team. Obviously JM Liles would have held the spot Hunwick is taking on the team as small puck moving defenseman from the US. It might be more suprising the Leafs are in the playoffs than Hunwick is on the US team.

Anyway, I still don’t know what to make of Sacco coaching this team.

slappywhite

imagine the US just slaughters everyone in this tourney, how mind boggling would that be? unlikely with that emotionless muppet behind the bench but if they dominated every avs fan, including myself, would just explode with confusion. go avs go

Avsolutely

Sacco is the Coach….. Stastny and Hunwick on the team….. I am sorry, I love my Avs, but seriously? There is a reason we are in friggin’ last place and all three of these people are part of the reason. This doesn’t bode well for team USA.

GoAVS!

It bodes well for Hunwick. With Sacco in charge, he’ll play 25 minutes a game, while EJ plays 18…

Its true Stastny has had a
drop off over the last two maybe three years, but look at who he is playing with now. Half this season with David Jones, other times with third line guys. If you give him a goal scoring winger he could have 70-80 points again. He was doing pretty well with Chris Stewart… Looking at his career stats he is the best center the AVs have. He also won a silver against Canada in the Olympics and he averages .95 pts/game for team USA.

I agree that Stastny is paid way too much for his lack of scoring lately, but that’s managements fault. You don’t sign a guy to a long term contract at over $6 million a year after 2-3 seasons of play. That’s just stupid.

I’ve been one of those of people who has supported Stastny being traded at one time or another. But when I’ve pushed for trading him, it was during a time when Bobby Ryan was complaining about being unhappy in Anaheim or earlier this season when his production on the ice was pretty much non-existent. I do think he serves more than just points and is still an asset to the team, but on most nights, we need him to show up more often than he does. If he can’t find that groove again with the Avs where he’s contributing offensively and making better scoring plays for his wingers, than I say go ahead and trade him. He’s still young enough and talented enough to keep playing high-level hockey, but maybe he needs to sign with a different team to find that edge again. I don’t know. But he can’t keep playing like a 3rd line center and expect people to be supportive of him either. Especially with that gigantic contract thrown in everyone’s face.

Dave

I’ll tell u why people “hate on” Stastny so much. It’s because dear Paulie has the maddening habit of disappearing for 5-6-7 game stretches in a row with nary a peep out of the guy. Then he’ll put up some decent point totals for the next 3 or 4 games before he, predictably, vanishes into thin air again. Look, streaky players are pretty commonplace in hockey, but Stastny takes it to new heights. He’s either a thoroughbred, or a donkey. And unfortunately, we seem to see the donkey side of him more-and-more often nowadays. That’s why.

Puck Me Up

I don’t really care about which Avs players are gonna be in this tournament. This season was one of the most disappointing seasons I’ve seen since I started watching hockey back in ’96 and I have a very bitter taste in my mouth for this club, so not much is going to make me feel excited for a while. That being said, I am curious as to who coaches along side of Sacco during this gig though because I can’t really differentiate between Sacco just being a not-so-good NHL coach, or if most of the team’s coaching struggles are directly related to the poor assistant coaching. Maybe giving a look at what he accomplishes (or fails to accomplish) over there will help us all determine if HE is the real problem or if the real problem(s) lie elsewhere. I mean let’s be completely honest here, there are times when the Avs appear to be on their way of becoming a really good team, then all the sudden they look as though someone shot ’em up with heroin and carefully placed them on the ice. I really hope something changes in the off season because I’m sick of watching them look like an NHL team for barely a 1/4 of the season.

You have no idea what you’re talking about. Is “Ignorance” your middle name?

Dave

No, “Ignorance” isn’t my middle name, but it’s probably yours.

My crack about Johnson not making an AHL team is tongue-in-cheek. You do understand that, right?

I stand by my statement that Johnson is pretty much of a bust here in Colorado. For someone who commanded such a steep price in the trade with the Blues, EJ has been woefully disappointing. 7 goals and 33 assists in 125 games for the Avs may impress you, but not me. Those are more akin to Greg DeVries or Martin Skoula numbers, as opposed to what Johnson was supposed to bring to the table.

LR

compared to what Johnson was supposed to be and what we gave up for him, I stand with you Dave. Johnson has been a bust. I still think it’s too early to give up on him though.

GoAVS!

Dont give up on him just yet. He showed flashes of “man against boys” type of play last season. He’s not the 50 points guy and he’ll never be that. But he can still turn out to be a really good player for the Avs.

For now, I’d like to see Avs add a #1 dman and have an NHL caliber coach. Lets see what happens then.

Dave

I’ve not completely given up hope that Johnson can improve somewhat, but it’s become painfully apparent that he’ll never be the #1 D-Man he was projected to be when the Av’s paid a very pretty price to get him. That’s the problem. Johnson was expected to be a multi-dimensional force on the blue line; a guy who could lug the puck up ice, quarterback the powerplay, be a defensive beast in his own end, consistently rack up respectable point totals, etc…, yet we have seen little evidence of him being adept in any of these areas. Is he a decent defenseman? Yeah. But is he a game-changer kind of player? Not in my opinion.

LR

Hank, you attack everyone, calling us “ignorant”. Not a very
civilized way to have a discussion. Before calling people
ignorant, perhaps look up the word “mature”. Then come back and we can
all engage in a thoughtful, respectful discussion.

LR

why does Sacco keep benching Paloosh? Dude gets more SOG and skates harder in 8min than Stastny does in 20.

Terry Frei graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in the Denver area and has degrees in history and journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He worked for the Rocky Mountain News while attending CU and joined the Post staff after graduation. He has also worked at the Oregonian in Portland, Ore., and The Sporting News. His seventh book, March 1939: Before the Madness, was issued in February 2014.

Chambers covers college and professional hockey for The Denver Post. He has written for the Post since 1994, after dumping his first 9-to-5 office job a couple years out of college. He primarily follows the University of Denver hockey team and helps cover the Avalanche.